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Ancient Greek society
Principles and the development of democracy
Ancient Greek society
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The Golden Age of Pericles
The golden age of pericles is the crowning time period of Athens, marked by sculpture, architecture, theatre, and philosophy. Athens lunged from obscurity towards the beginning of the Fifth century BC, developing strong military units known as Hoplites and beginning their navy development.Through cooperation with neighboring city states, Athens defeats the persian army and forms the Delian League. The Delian League’s goal was to rid the land of pirates and of any lingering persian forces. This marks the beginning of a fifty year long ‘golden’ age for Athens. Pericles, born in Cholarges, was the son of the politician Xanthippus had a quiet childhood. He was a shy child, preferring his studies over public appearances. His families wealth and connections allowed him to progress rapidly through his education. He studied music and philosophy and became friends with many contemporary philosophers of the time. Pericles is considered the first politician to place importance in philosophy and philosophical teachings.
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The purpose was to continue fighting the persian empire and to rid the seas of pirates. The Delian League’s name derives from the island of Delos, where the League’s meeting place and treasury lay. Soon after the original creation of the Delian League, Athens began it’s exploitation of the League’s resources and navy. Athen’s greedy behavior eventually escalated to the point where Athens moved the League’s treasury from the island of Delos to Athens itself! Pericles selfish actions brought wealth and prosperity to Athens, however other Greek City-states did not fare so well and eventually the Delian league was disbanded and the Peloponnesian war
It also had intentions to push the war between Greece and Persia back into enemy territory. The treasury and headquarters of the league was situated at Delos, an island mid-way between Athens and Asia Minor with a good harbour. It was also the centre of Ionian worship for the god Apollo. Originally, Sparta had been given the role of hegemonia (leadership), but due to the arrogant treatment of the allies by the king Pausanias, this role was handed over to Athens.
"It might be suggested the ability of the allies to pay tribute is the strength of Athens" (The Old Oligarch, I, 15). Indeed. It is this characteristic in particular of the Delian League that leads it to be rightfully called the Athenian Empire. If each state had maintained its own fleet, and sent it to join the League in its expeditions, they would have held on to a significant measure of independence. Instead, a critically large enough portion of the league members abdicated control over their own military (by their own choice or by force) and simply paid cash to Athens, giving that city the ability to maintain an empire through the use of military might.
Due to the Persian wars, Athens saw fit to build a fleet that would rival an empire far larger than itself. After the conclusion of the war this fleet served as a rallying point for Greek cities tired of living under the Persian Empire. Joining Athens, the Greeks formed the Delian league with three goals in mind, “containment of Persia, the gathering of booty as compensation for damages done to Greece during the war, and simple revenge”. It’s fair to say that at this point, many of the Greek Poleis that joined the league were desperate
...proud rationalization of its superiority. Balancing security, happiness, and values, Athens is a shining example of freedom, opportunity and justice. It is a nation that both builds itself on and produces uniquely spirited citizens. The sentiments of Pericles’ truly are reminiscent of modern day American Exceptionalism. “I doubt if the world can produce a man who, where he has only himself to depend upon, is equal to so many emergencies, and graced by so happy a versatility, as the Athenian.” (2.41.1).
One of the biggest critics of Pericles’ vision of democracy was Pseudo-Xenophon or (The Old Oligarch). The Old Oligarch first critics the common assessment of the Athenian Democracy that states that democracy does not work very well and that it is foolish and mistaken. The Old Oligarch responds to this common assessment believing that Athens is doing everything right with democracy in terms of what they wanted to achieve with all citizens getting a say in government as Pericles had visioned. However, the Old Oligarch criticizes the common people of Athens as ignorant and disorderly. The Old Oligarch does not agree that all Athenian citizens have merit over class like Pericles. Not being a supporter of the poor, the Old Oligarch finds the Aristocrats as the better sort of people. In passage 1.9, The Old Oligarch states, “But if you seek for good legislation, in the first place you will see the cleverest members of the community laying down the laws for the rest.” The Old Oligarch’s statement shows that he believed the aristocrats were designed to rule. They had money and time, the two biggest components to get an education at the time, and as a result the Old Oligarch believed the aristocrats since educated, could make the best legislation for Athens. The Old Oligarch belief is supported through history to when democracy fell in Athens after the consequences of the Sicilian Expedition. After the fall of democracy, Aristocrats were put in charge because they were seemed as the most educated. In addition, the Old Oligarch states in passage 2.17, “But in the case of engagements entered into by a democracy it is
The roots of the Peloponnesian war can be traced long before 431 BCE, when it officially started. It can be traced back to as early as the Persian Wars, where the Athenians had found their home burned by the hands of the Persians. That disaster left the Athenians with no home and no sanctuary. Even though that was a defeated battle amidst a victorious war, they still had reason to believe that the Persians will come back for more. Apprehensive at the thought of having their city burned yet another time, the Athenians knew they had to do something. Naturally, they chose to get help. Gathering up the neighboring city-states around them, the Athenians formed the Delian League; an alliance working directly to defend the whole of Greece from Persian attacks (Kagan 8). In the beginning, this worked out well; everybody got their say on what went on in the league, and everybody was satisfied. However, the Athenians saw that if they were to take more power, the members of the league would not be strong enough to resist. Therefore, that was exactly what they did; they took more and more power until what was the Delian League became the Athenian Empire (Kagan 8). As they grew even more powerful and wealthy, their neighbors of Sparta and the Peloponnesian League, Sparta's alliance, could not help but notice (Kagan 13). In 431 BCE, lighted b...
Socrates was a classical Greek philosopher that was born in Athens, Greece around 470/469 BC. He served in the Athenian army and fought in many battles. When Socrates retired from fighting in the army, he began focusing on expressing his beliefs. He wasn’t the typical “teacher” or “preacher”; he was a very critical and analytical thinker that helped guide his students and the Athenians during his time. Through his teachings and beliefs, Socrates had positive and negative influence on the people during his time and modern time. Although he is credited as one of the founders of Western Philosophy, Political Philosophy, and Ethics, his teachings was in disagreement with the teachings of the democracy of Athens, which led to him being put to death. Along with his philosophical beliefs, Socrates’ great thinking led to the creation of the Socratic Method and the Socratic Paradoxes.
In Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, Pericles commends the ergon of Athenian heroes, which has placed them in the realm of logos, while directing the Athenians to follow these ideals of logos. The maintenance and continued success of Athens' political establishment relies on the prevalence of polis, rationality and discourse over family, emotion and reckless action. However, the indiscriminate turns of fate and fortune, often place logos in opposition with the base, primal nature of ergon. Both Thucydides and Sophocles recognize that when logos conflicts with the unexpected ergon, the preservation of rationality and unanimity among the citizens of the polis depend on the leadership of a single honest leader. In the History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides presents Pericles as a man of logos, whom Athens needs to achieve its full potential as an empire and later to rescue her from disaster. Likewise, Sophocles presents Theseus, in Oedipus Colonus, as the perfect successor of Pericles, who returns Athens to its former glory before the end of the war. In these two examples, we see that the dominance of logos over ergon within a polis lies in the ability and logos of the city’s current leader.
For Pericles, Athenian values are realized through culture and “daily devotion.” He claims that Athenian citizens obey both “the laws themselves” and “agreed-on social values (which need no specific legislation),” not requiring legislation to uphold their values. Accordingly, Pericles views exceptionalism as intrinsic to Athenians. Boasting about the city, Pericles questions “how else did she become great but by this genius in her citizens?” A recommitment to civic values, therefore, is simple to Pericles: Athenians are exceptional at the moment of his speech, and must simply continue their past conduct in order to achieve future
"Annual contributions of money and ships poured in, which made Athens richer and more powerful as time progressed. The league pushed the Persians out of Europe and back from Ionia"(Oziah, 2013, p. 4). On the strength of those tributes, along with the manpower from member states, the league was invincible in battle, and an economic boom followed, soon the leading Athens became a flourishing hub of the whole area. As Thomas Martin indicated, "The Athenian-dominated Delian League enjoyed success after success against the Persian in the 470s and 460s...almost all Persian garrisons had been expelled from the Greek world and the Persian fleet driven from the Aegean...Persia ceased to be a threat to Greeks for the next fifty
In his examination of Thucydides writings he states “What Thucydides clearly means to stress is that from the very first, the Athenians used the Delian League for their own hegemonial ends” (Rawlings, 1977). If we were to measure the success of the Delian League as Athens’ empire then it is not so clear that it had been a success. The transition from alliance to empire, beginning with the subjugation of Naxos, was not smooth at all, with the growth in Athens’ power being mirrored with a growth in dissatisfaction of the other members. Aside from this, throughout the 74 years of it’s existence tensions across the Greek world had only increased and war between states had been devastating to many states, and ultimately to Athens, weakening them to the point of being an ineffectual defensive. After the League dissolved, the threat from Persia became all to real again, and by 387 BCE (Cartwright, 2013), Persia had gained land in the Greek world
The death of Pericles was a significant event in the course of the Peloponnesian War; however, even without Pericles' leadership the Athenian Assembly had countless opportunities to prevent their loss and chose not to take them. The fickleness and inefficiency of democracy ('the mob') allowed the Athenians to be easily influenced and therefore electing populists such as Cleon, Lysicles and Hyperbolus into dominant leadership roles. Election, via democratic means, of such populists, meant that the Athenians would take a much more aggressive approach to the war and therefore abandon the policies that Pericles had previously established. So in turn, democracy the institution for which the Athenians fought tirelessly to protect, rather than the death of Pericles, ironically became the dominant factor influencing the final outcome of this Ancient Greek civil war.
The Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.) was a conflict between the Athenian Empire and the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta that resulted in the end of the Golden Age of Athens. The events of the war were catalogued by the ancient historian Thucydides in The History of the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides’ writings showed the ancient Greek belief that there is a parallel between the city-state and the character of its citizens; in order for the city-state to be successful, its citizens must be virtuous. Thucydides did not believe that the true cause of the Peloponnesian War were the immediate policies of the Athenian Empire against the city-states in the Peloponnesian League but rather the fundamental differences in the character of the two city-states
No one would deny that Pericles was the most prominent Greek statesman and spokesperson during the Golden Age. His contribution was largely felt during the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars having obtained power from his family link to the Alcmaeonid family. He commanded a lot of respect to from the Athenian citizens with Thucydides describing him as "the first citizen of Athens” . He was born at around 495 BC north of Athens in the ...
The Prosperous Greek Golden Age Throughout the history of the Greek civilization, the Greek people have endured many hardships, as well as peace and triumphs. However, one Greek time period stands out the most for being both peaceful and aggressive, the Golden Age. During the Golden Age, Greece and its surrounding colonies flourished with wealth and power, was influenced by several key players, and participated in wars and battles, as well. The Greek Golden Age was one of the highest points of Greek society, and impacted it years later. In the year approximately 500 B.C., the Greek civilization came upon a time of peace.